PML-N will complete its tenure, and get re-elected: Nawaz

Claims opposition parties are taking revenge from people for not electing them in 2013

KASUR: Unfazed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) claim that its planned Nov 2 protest in Islamabad would culminate in his dismissal, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the government will not only complete its present term but his party will also form the government for another five-year after 2018 polls.

“Our elected government will not only complete its recent five years term but also the next five-year tenure after the 2018 election,” Nawaz said on Saturday while addressing a charged rally of supporters in Phol Nagar area of Kasur district.

“The opposition wants to derail Pakistan’s journey on the road to success. However, their political career will soon come to an end,” he added. Nawaz said the country rejected the opposition parties in the 2013 general elections and now they were ‘taking revenge’ from the country by obstructing development.

“These political elements want to obstruct and sabotage the pace of progress and development as the government has heralded the demise to their political career.

“They are out to stall the unprecedented and historic development undertaken by our government to fully transform Pakistan into a stable and prosperous county,” he added.

Obliquely referring to the PTI, Nawaz said a political party even insulted its public mandate in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The PTI has announced a plan to paralyse life in the federal capital on Nov 2 to force the PM either to resign or present himself for accountability in the wake of Panama Papers revelations.

He claimed that his rivals did not even endure miseries of a jail while he had undergone such ordeals in the Attock jail after the October 1999 military coup.

He said the opposition takes two months to hold a public gathering like the one the PML-N had arranged on a short notice. Nawaz pledged to end load-shedding and provide electricity to the citizens at cheaper rates.

“When Nawaz Sharif makes a promise he fulfills it. The motorway was extended to Lahore in 1999 but our government was brought to end, now we will take it further,” Nawaz said.

Shahbaz raises questions

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday asked what PTI chief Imran Khan be called for his call to lockdown Islamabad as he [Imran] had called the Muttahida Qaumi Movement founder Altaf Hussain a traitor when he threatened to lockdown Karachi.

Addressing a ceremony to distribute compensatory cheques among heirs of those martyred in Indian shelling in Shakargarh sector, he said on the one hand India was violating the working boundary and the LoC and on the other hand hatching conspiracies against the economy.

“The coal power plant in Sahiwal would have been completed by now if the sit-ins in 2014 wouldn’t have happened,” he said, adding that Imran Khan was threatening to halt the progress of the country by threatening to lockdown Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2016.